Avon approves new restrooms in Nottingham Park
Plans for skate plaza fall through after funding source changes direction, but town moves forward with rest of design
The east side of Harry A. Nottingham Park will have a new look by the start of summer 2026. The Avon Town Council approved $6 million in design updates to the Old Town Hall site, at 1 Lake Street, during its regular meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 24.
Town Engineer Nicole Mosby presented the project to council.
Avon has been looking to find a new use for the Old Town Hall site for years and has considered — and approved — several iterations of improvement projects.
In January 2022, the council approved a design that included a 41-stall bathroom, a concession stand, a park plaza and a picnic area. The project went out to bid in June 2022 but received no bids. The same project went to bid again in November 2022 and received two bids, but council rejected both after learning the construction of the restrooms alone totaled $5 million.
The site was graded and reseeded with grass in spring 2023. In spring and summer 2023, the Avon Skate Coalition approached Avon with a proposal to place a skate plaza on the site, funded by a grant from the Colorado Health Foundation. The council approved a design that included the skate plaza and restrooms in November 2023 at a meeting that was well-attended by skate plaza supporters.
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Then, in May, funding for the skate plaza fell through. Council chose to move forward with the restrooms while leaving the option open to build a skate plaza later if alternative funding sources can be found.
Key design features of the current plan include new bathrooms with 19 stalls, a plaza and a rain shelter. There will also be a seating wall and an updated walking path. The parking lot will be reconfigured, adding one space to the current amount, and the site will be graded and landscaped, while most of the present trees are retained.
Additionally, the project will include some “huge” infrastructure improvements, Mosby said. This portion of the project, which often gets “overlooked,” includes updating the light posts to meet town standards, relocating transformers to the southern portion of the site and undergrounding overhead electric. All of this causes “a lot of impacts to the town’s operations,” Mosby said.
The project, as presented by Mosby, will cost just over $6 million, an increase from the original project budget of approximately $3 million. In November, the town received a $1 million Main Street LIVE grant from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, which can be used to fund the project.
The restrooms, which will be constructed in Washington state via modular construction by the company Green Flush, will cost between $870,000 and $900,000. An additional $3.9 million will go toward the general contractor, Baker Builders, which will work onsite from April through October 2025.
The biggest construction impacts will take place in 2025, but effort has already gone into minimizing effects during high traffic times in the park, such as during town events. At the latest, the project should be completed by Memorial Day 2026.
The town has not taken the skate park option off the table and continues to search for sources of funding. The Department of Local Affairs is one option. Great Outdoors Colorado told town staff it will not provide funding for a new project in Avon until the town completes the EagleBend Park Project the organization already funded, which will likely be finished in late spring or early summer 2025. There is a federal land and water conservation grant that is an option “but it also comes with a lot of federal strings attached,” said Eric Heil, Avon’s town manager.
As a result, “we’re probably not in a position to apply for funds for a skate park until June of 2026,” Heil said.
In the meantime, the town will leave the area that may become a skate park evenly graded and open for future development.